Ninamori was one of my closest friends in junior and senior high. Especially after Haruko left. Though after graduation day we started drifting apart, we still made sure to stay in contact with one another.
I sometimes wondered how someone so high class could still be hanging out with someone so common, but then I remembered....
*****
"Oh, thank you so much, Canti!" Says Ninamori to the TV-headed robot who politely offers to take her coat.
She removes her fur coat, which would've likely costed the average salary man's entire paycheck for the month, revealing a surprisingly more modest looking sweater underneath.
Handing over her coat to Canti, she turns to Naota with a knowing smirk.
"Your robot's a real gentleman, isn't he, Naota?" She says sarcastically.
Naota is unsure how to respond, though he looks over to Canti nervously scratching his head, seeming a bit flustered by Ninamori's comment, knowing that if he weren't made of pure metal that he'd probably be blushing right about now.
"So, um, Ninamori, would you like some Coffee?"
"Oh, no, I'm not really in the mood for coffee, right now. How about tea?"
Just when she says that, A message written in Japanese flashes across Canti's screen:
We have regular tea, Matcha, Sencha, Genmaicha, Mugicha, Kuromamecha, and chamomile.
Ninamori and Naota are both a bit surprised by the wide range of options available to them.
"We have Chamomile?" Says Naota.
Another message flashes across Canti's screen:
It comes from my own personal tea collection.
Now, Naota is the one scratching his head. He never would have considered that Canti collected teas, but he shrugs it off.
"Oh wow! Hmm, I think I'll have the Matcha. Thanks, Canti." says Ninamori with a smile, clearly a bit flattered.
Canti nods before going to hang up Ninamori's coat.
Naota and Ninamori exchange some more pleasantries and small talk before sitting down.
Some time later...
*****
Canti walks in with a hot tea pot and fills the teacups on the coffee table. He then hands the tea cup over to Ninamori.
She thanks Canti, and he gives a courteous bow in response, before heading into the kitchen to make breakfast.
Ninamori turns to Naota just as soon as she sees that Canti is out of earshot and says.
"He is so polite, Naota! Has he always been that way?"
"it's just his nature, I suppose." Naota says while shrugging his shoulders.
"What would you do without him?" Ninamori says jokingly with a wink.
Good question, thinks Naota, sipping on his coffee.
"You know, I've never really thought about that. He's been around for so long that it's hard to think of a time that he wasn't."
"So, did he come like that in the box?"
Naota almost spits out some of his coffee whenever he hears that, but he manages to hold most of it in. Ninamori offers him a handkerchief but he curtly waves it away. He sits the coffee on the table.
"Not exactly." He answers.
"So, where did he come from, then? You never really told me about that." She says, while casually twirling the mixing spoon she had placed into her tea.
This line of questioning is met with a somber silence from Naota.
Ninamori knew that silence well. She would always get that kind of silence whenever she asked any questions about that pink-haired woman he used to know named Haruko.
It was always such a distinct silence to her, because he had no problem talking about other things, but anytime she so much as uttered a word about Haruko was when Naota's lips were tightly shut.
Eventually, she had just learned to stop asking about her, no matter how much it was clearly eating him up on the inside, because she knew that she wouldn't be getting any answers.
This made her realize though that however Canti came to be, his arrival must've been related to that woman in some way.
Then she remembered all the other crazy things that were happening around that time and figured that the pink-haired woman must've had a hand in that as well.
Giant robots attacking the city, satellites coming down from the sky, and of course, she could not forget about the time a pair of cat ears that sprouted from her head and became a giant robot that grew from her body.
Not to mention that Haruko was the reason for her having cat ears in the first place whenever her motor bike rammed into her, causing her to have a literal head-on collision with Naota, that ended up transferring those cat ears from his body to hers.
Then it came to her like a flash!
Canti must've come out of Naota's head! She then realizes that if Haruko was to blame for all of those other robots, then she must've been responsible for this one as well.
She also realizes that by inadvertently shifting the conversation onto Haruko, she had accidentally tripped over the one thing that Naota absolutely did not want to talk about.
This silence goes on for a few more moments. Naota is surprisingly the one who breaks it. holding his coffee mug close in hand, he speaks.
"So... Um, what exactly brings you over?"
"Oh, right!" Says Ninamori, suddenly remembering that she has a reason for being here. "Well, to be honest. I'm here because I got a call from Gaku. He says that you didn't show up for work this morning. I just wanted to make sure that everything was alright."
Naota tries to play off his obvious nervousness by taking a sip from his coffee.
"Everything's fine." He says.
"Is it, though?"
Naota seems to sink further away as he holds the coffee mug higher until it's covering half of his face. He starts to gaze away from Ninamori.
Ninamori sees the way Naota literally hides himself from her, and can't help but to think of Haruko and the way that she acted around him.
She remembered watching him fight one of those giant robots while in Canti's body. She especially remembered the way he smelled whenever he got shot out of the robot's body, which was a particularly repulsive and pungent smell.
The way he plummeted to the ground after crashing into a billboard sign in the form of a bullet of some sort, made from some kind of plasma or molten liquid, and having to douse him with a water gun to change him back.
The way that Haruko would rub Naota's cat ears to to make her jealous.
She also remembered the time in which she kissed Naota on the lips, right there in the middle of class, and how nobody else in the classroom seemed to be care.
Even Junko Miyaji, the teacher, seemed to be more concerned with Canti, who happened to be standing right there at the time.
Ninamori seemed to be the only one who seemed to notice or care that an adult wasn't supposed to be kissing a student on the lips, but nobody else was saying anything, so she didn't feel comfortable saying anything either.
She kicks herself whenever she looks back on that day, wishing she had said something, but even she was too concerned about the school play that they were putting on at the time.
Who was she, anyway?
This strange pink-haired woman named Haruko, who somehow knew all this stuff about aliens and robots, who just suddenly started living with Naota one day and acting as his housekeeper...
It was all so strange, and every time Ninamori thought about it, she just found herself asking more and more questions.
Ninamori decides that she needs answers, so she tries once again to broach the subject of Haruko.
"It's Haruko, isn't it?" She says.
Naota is a bit surprised by this. He glances back to Ninamori before quickly turning his gaze onto the coffee in his hands.
"What?"
"You've been thinking of her again, haven't you...?"
Naota just gives a sullen look. He hates being reminded of Haruko anymore than he already has been, and tries to avoid the topic whenever possible.
His mind always wandered back to the things that Haruko said.
He remembers the time whenever she held him close to her and said how much she needed him, and how good it felt to be needed.
I'm always thinking of her...
Ninamori picks up her tea cup for the first time since Canti poured it. It was still a little hot.
"Of course, you're always thinking of her..."
Naota feels himself shrinking.
"But you've never missed work before, so I know that something must be wrong."
Naota doesn't know what to day. Doesn't want to talk about this. So, he tries to deflect.
"You're tea is getting cold."
This response annoys Ninamori a little bit. She sits her tea cup back onto the table without taking a sip.
"It can wait."
Her expression shifts to one of minor concern.
"it's just that you get like this every year. a little more detached and withdrawn, until eventually, I'm not even sure what I'm looking at anymore. It goes on like this for a few months, but it always gets worse on this day..."
Naota grips his hand tightly around his coffee mug as she continues.
"...The day that she left..."
Naota wants nothing more in this moment than to run from this conversation. He fights against the urge to walk away. He doesn't want to be here anymore. He just wants to be gone.
He doesn't speak. He doesn't interject. He just sits there looking at his own sullen reflection in the coffee. Ninamori can feel her heart rate rising. She feels her hand shaking.
Naota sees this and for a moment he almost forgets his pain. His hand moves a little bit. He almost reaches out.
She continues.
"You see, the thing is, that I know it's not your fault. I know that somehow she did this to you, and... and..."
She looks up at Naota with heartache in her eyes. Her face tinting red as she forces herself to get out the next few words.
"Right now... Right now, I would do anything to make you forget about her, Naota..."
She slowly moves her hand across the table. Gliding over the surface, she inches it forward. Closer and closer, until her hand is hovering just over his. Their fingers are just about to make contact when...
Naota pulls his hand away.
Seeing this also causes Ninamori to pull her own hand back, letting out a small eep! as she does so.
Another round of excruciating silence.
Ninamori's cheeks even redder than before, she can practically feel the embarrassment dripping off of her face. Naota's face on the other hand isn't red. The exact opposite, in fact. In that very moment, it seems...
Chillingly hollow.
Another few seconds go by before Naota is again the one to break this silence.
"I'm sorry, I just... need to be alone." He says, seeming to be barely willing to say even that much.
"Of course! I mean..."
Besides herself with guilt, and feeling more ashamed with each passing second, she thinks to herself that it's time for her to go, and stands up.
Naota hears the light sound of footsteps coming from around the table followed by a noticeable thud. He looks up to see Ninamori kneeling before him. She then lowers herself further to the floor until her forehead touches the floor.
This was Dogeza. The act of lowering oneself to show deep regret or remorse.
"Clearly, I've overstepped my boundaries. please forgive me." Her words were full of sorrow.
Ninamori's father was once the mayor of Mabase, and her family was quite wealthy. So naturally she was of a higher class than him, a lowly salary worker.
There was no need for her to be prostrating herself before him in such a manner. If anything, it should have been the other way around. But seeing her doing it anyway moves him in many ways, but mostly fills him shame for putting her through so much grief.
A few moments pass without any words being said. Ninamori waits for any kind of reply. Whether it be acknowledgement, scorn, or anything other than the agonizing silence.
Naota wants to break the silence, but just can't.
No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't find the words. It was like my heart had jumped out of my chest and was now weighing like a stone against my tongue...
Realizing that a response would not come, Ninamori eventually stands up and gives a less formal and less humiliating bow before turning away.
Naota feels his heart twisting as he watches her go. With each passing footstep, he feels the urge to stop her growing more and more urgent, and as the footsteps grew more and more distant, he can no longer contain it.
He calls out to her with despair on his tongue.
In that moment, I knew that I had to say something, because I knew that if I let her go that she would be gone forever...
"Wait, Ninamori..."
Ninamori stops.
"Please... don't go..."
Ninamori turns and sees Naota in shambles. His hair messier than usual. His body hunched over the table, and looking as though he couldn't even lift the coffee mug in his hands. She couldn't help looking upon him with some sense of pity.
"There's something else I need to say..."
Ninamori thought back to that time whenever she saw Naota and Haruko asleep next to each other on the streets. Huddled close to one another underneath a blanket and some cardboard boxes.
She thought it was wrong, but still said nothing. She just kept going about her day, just like everyone else.
She remembered thinking similar things about Naota as her father after he got enthralled into a corruption scandal that ended with him getting kicked out of office:
If he wants to throw his life away, than that's his choice. It's really none of my business.
Haruko left shortly after that. He never saw her again.
If only she were a little older at the time, she might have said something about it. She sometimes wondered how things would have been if she had just acted upon her instincts to begin with.
Feeling obligated to be there for Naota. She stays.
She walks over to the table, and sits down.
"What is it...?" she says calmly....
*****
Later that morning...
The screen door opens and out walks Ninamori, followed by Naota.
"Ninamori, I... Thanks for coming over... Really."
A moment of silence passes as they gaze into one another's eyes.
Ninamori leans in, and they share a hug that for Ninamori is more like an embrace. Naota is caught off guard by this, but he allows it nonetheless.
"Thanks for the tea..." She whispers.
The hug goes on for a while...
When they pull apart, Ninamori looks upon Naota again with a soft smile, and Naota cannot help but to smile back.
They casually bow to one another before parting ways.
As he watches her go, the smile starts to fade....
*****
I don't remember exactly whenever it was that I started noticing that Ninamori had feelings for me... Though it must have been shortly after Haruko left...
One thing I did start to notice was Ninamori's hair...
It got a lot shorter....